The Irrelevant Decision

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you're suffering from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Mats Sundin has said he'll decide Friday if he's going to play in the NHL, and, if so, with which team.
My take on it? His decision is irrelevant.
Why? Because whatever team takes him (if any) is not going to win the Satnley Cup because of him. Let's face it, the guy is 37 years old. He's never won a Cup before. He's never been a first or second team All-Star. He's never won an individual trophy. And he hasn't gotten the Toronto Maple Leafs into the playoffs the last 3 years.
If some team thinks they'll be better off paying Sundin up to $10 million/season, they'd better rethink. An irrelevant player isn't worth that kind of salary cap hit.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Wet Feet

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. My son is taking swimming lessons next door. A young lady teaches in her family's pool. He changes at our house and then we walk over.
Today he was wondering where his sandals were. He wanted to put them on because the ground was wet. The area he walks on is smooth, so that's not a concern.
I said it was irrelevant if he got wet feet.
Why? Because he was going to get wet feet (and everything else) a few minutes later. Why worry about wet feet now?
Did he survive? Yes, he made it with no issues.
Was I worried? I thought he'd put up a fuss, but it didn't come.
Always determine if an action will be irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Bad Shots

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Hello. My apologies for not writing yesterday. I was playing in the Sandra Schmirler Golf Tournament.
Our team hit a lot of bad shots yesterday. However, they were irrelevant.
Why? Because we always had someone hit a good one at the right time. And in a scramble format (everyone hits, we take the best shot, then everyone hits from there) you only need one good one.
As a result, our decision making time was very short. There usually was only one ball to pick. Sometimes we couldn't even find the other 3!
So what happened? We won with a 59, -12 for the day. It was very surprising, but we finished strong, -9 for the last 8 holes. The bad shots were really irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Retirement Offer

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.


Hello. My apologies for not writing Thursday.
On my other blog, I wrote I was able to retire at a young age. I offered to assist anyone who wanted to retire earlier than they think they can now. I didn't mention a price, only that there would be a fee.
The post happened two weeks ago. So far I've gotten no replies.
Why? Because the retirement offer is irrelevant. I knew it would be because I've given my card to people in person after making the same offer. I've never had a call.
Do people want to retire? I think so. And many would probably want to before they feel they can. But still my offer is irrelevant.
Is it the cost? Or that my main qualification is being retired? Since no one replied, it's irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Pro-Am

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. On Monday the RBC Canadian Open Pro-Am was cancelled due to seemingly never ending rain.
Did anyone care? To all but the amateur participants, the pro-am is irrelevant.
So why have this pro-am? To give 144 avid golfers a chance to play with PGA Tour players. Except the price tag is so high, many true fans can't play in it. This means companies have to fill the event with "whoever", who may or may not be a golfer.
Even if the amateurs are all really good players, they're still nowhere near as good as the PGA guys. I know because I played with one on the road to obscurity, and he was still pretty darn good.
As a result, the pros don't want to be there either. In short, the pro-am is irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Reports

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Yesterday I had lunch with a former co-worker. He's now a part time consultant. His main task is writing reports to retrieve info from the personnel database.
As he said, at our former company this job would be irrelevant, because the user community were skilled enough to create their own ad-hoc reports. The didn't need our help.
At this company, however, that talent doesn't exist, even though there are apparently drop down menus to make it relatively easy.
Reports can be a black hole for a company. So many reports, a lot of which are almost identical in nature, many of them irrelevant.
Reports should only be relevant if they add value to the business. If they don't report a critical measure orprovide customer service, how relevant are they?

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Work Hours II

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Hello. What is sludge? When talking about ROWE (Results Oriented Work Environment), sludge are comments that are related to the irrelevant working hours. For example, if someone has to leave the office to pick up kids at 4pm, a coworker comment like "just putting in a half day?" would be sludge.
As someone who supervised people, I can honestly say I didn't care how many hours my reports worked. In fact, I often told them to work less hours, because work is a marathon, not a sprint. I also found when I cut out my personal overtime, it was irrelevant, because I was still able to get my work done (if not more). The time deadline focused me on results, which is what ROWE is all about.
If you are in a work environment, look for irrelevant sludge (from yourself and others) and eliminate it.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Work Hours

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. I really enjoy reading Tim Ferriss' lifestyle blog on fourhourworkweek.com. For those who don't know, Tim Ferriss' book of that title is a bestseller, and a real eye-opener.
One blog topic was ROWE (Results Oriented Work Environment). In essence, it said working hours were irrelevant. The book, written by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, says all people and companies should be looking at results only.
In looking back at my career, I can honestly say I got away from results. And that lead to my being asked to leave. I wanted to be asked to leave, but that's another story.
All the effort I put into looking busy was such a waste in hindsight. Why couldn't I have just focused on results? Well, the authors, and a lot of blog replies, say why. The answer is sludge.
What's sludge? I'll say on Monday.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Conversation II

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Hello. So why do people have irrelevant conversations? My favourite Dilbert cartoon illustrates this perfectly.
Dilbert is asked by his boss for a status update on Project Caribou. Dilbert replies it's Wally's project. The boss says he's thinking about Project Caribou, and Dilbert's there instead of Wally. He then tells Dilbert to tell Wally that Dilbert will now be working on Project Caribou. Dilbert then says "Do you see this thimble? I put my morale in it", an all-time classic.
When people want to know about something, the person they're talking to is irrelevant. They'll ask anyone anything about it. And if the irrelevant person (me in the case of my mom) says they don't know, it doesn't matter. The questions will still come.
Expect to be asked irrelevant things, even if you're irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Conversation

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. My mom came to our place today to look after the kids while I work my part-time job. She's great that way.
One thing that frustrates me, though, is her conversation with me. I sometimes wonder why I'm part of the conversation. For the most part I'm irrelevant.
Why? Because my mom asks me questions about other people, expecting me to know the answer. For example, tonight my spouse is golfing with friends. Since my spouse works close to home, my mom asked if my spouse will be home for lunch. Since I won't be home for lunch, I really don't care. I also don't know.
My mom also asked if my spouse will come home before going golfing. Again, I really don't care, because I plan for my spouse to not come home.
More tomorrow.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Swim Test

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Hello. Our community swimming pool has a swim test to determine if you're allowed to swim in the deep end. Good idea for the kids, even though some, like my 10-year-old daughter, may find it lame.
My 6-year-old son is not ready for deep end swimming. He would fail the swim test. And rightfully so. Yet, in spite of that, he was swimming in the deep end with my spouse yesterday.
Why? Because my spouse thinks the swim test is irrelevant.
I've found the more relevant someone thinks they are, the less relevant rules are to them. It seems to be an entitlement thing. And my spouse, being relevant, saw nothing wrong with taking my son into the deep end. Yes, he was closely supervised. He was near the edge. And no lifeguard said anything. In other words, the swim test was irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Favourite TV Programs

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Earlier this year I set some goals. One of them was to limit my TV time to 5 shows, most of which start with "Law and Order". I thought it would be a toughie, especially since I'm at home a lot.
What I've found is it's been very easy for me to do. And even on those days when I know I will miss a beloved program, I have no desire to tape it.
My favourite TV programs has become irrelevant to me.
Am I saying I can live without TV? Absolutely not. In fact, my TV will be on a lot when the Olympics start. But it is amazing how I've reverted back to my youth, when there were only 3 channels, and constant snow.
Who would've thought TV would become irrelevant to me? Certainly not me.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Garage Offer

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Yesterday my mom was over. She originally parked in the street so my spouse and I could get out of the garage.
When my spouse left, I made my mom the offer of parking in my spouse's side of our two-car garage. My thinking was it was very hot outside, so the car would be cooler. Also, there could be a thunderstorm when she wanted to leave, as the skies were threatening.
My offer was rejected.
Why? My mom said she doesn't have a garage at home. Therefore, she's used to getting into the car while it's raining, and sitting in it while it's hot. In other words, the fact we have a garage is irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Car Dent

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Hello. We're one of those strange families who have a two car garage, and we put both our car and our van in it at the same time. Weird, huh?
We also have some bikes in the garage in between the car and the van. One of them doesn't have the best kickstand.
This morning my spouse opened the front passenger van door, and rubbed the bad-kickstand bike. It started to fall, but my spouse caught it in time.
When I came out, I asked my spouse why the bike was caught. After all, it was leaning towards the car. Since I drive the car most of the time, any car dent would be irrelevant.
Why? Because I'm irrelevant, the car is also irrelevant. Therefore any dent would also be irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Threat

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Hello. Yesterday we celebrated my daughter's 10th birthday at my mom's house. While the kids were playing nicely, I was trying to watch some of the Federer-Nadal final.
My mom is quite set in her ways, as many of us (including me) are. One thing she likes to do is have dinner early. And when she calls you for dinner, you'd better be ready to click your heels!
I didn't respond immediately to her 1st, 2nd or 3rd calls. She told my spouse she was ready to murder me as I was coming to the kitchen.
I said "Please go ahead, and put me out of my misery". That shut my mom up. Why? Because her threat to me was irrelevant. Only a relevant person with something to live for would be distracted by a murder threat. An irrelevant person like me is indifferent to a murder threat.
When making a murder threat, consider the relevancy of the potential victim.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Rendezvous

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Hello. This morning I took my car in for an oil change. My spouse was to meet me after running an errand. It's a fair distance from our house to the garage, and with threatening skies I didn't want to walk it like I have in the past.
After waiting for 20 minutes, I decided to walk back.
My spouse eventually met up with me.
What happened? Apparently the errand had grown in complexity. At that point I became even more irrelevant than normal. My spouse rendezvousing with me also became irrelevant.
Is this normal? Absolutely! Because this errand was my spouse's errand, it was relevant. It took precedence over a rendezvous with an irrelevant person.
If you're an irrelevant person, be prepared to walk.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Bank Transfer

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. My apologies for not writing Monday and Tuesday. I was observing Canada Day.
Last week my spouse received a cheque from her employer. I was told to deposit it in our chequing account.
My spouse also mentioned transferring a similar amount from the chequing account to the savings account.
I asked if the bank transfer was irrelevant.
Why? Because my thinking was the cheque could be deposited into the savings account. Then there would be only two transactions instead of one.
My spouse's was "I'll take it under advisement". In other words, "you're probably right, but I won't admit it". I've now become irreelvant to the transaction, because my spouse is doing it.

Regards,
Irrelevant